A campaign group is kicking up a stink after finding 61 incidents of raw sewage flooding since 2015.
The Sustainability and Energy Network in Staveley (SENS) believes that rural communities cannot be left to simply manage the “unpleasant, unhealthy and potentially disastrous consequences” of sewage pollution after finding 61 incidents of raw sewage flooding on village roads of Staveley, near Windermere.
SENS says that the health of both residents and visitors is put at risk every time this happens and it is urgently demanding investment to upgrade what it says is “the inadequate wastewater infrastructure”.
A local Flood and Sewage Task Group has been set up to investigate the situation and engage with the relevant authorities. It claims that United Utilities does not fully record and report each incident separately.
Arthur Capstick, lead for the parish council on the Task Group, explains that the village’s combined surface water and sewage system has reached its capacity: “This matter has been illustrated beyond doubt to the parish council, causing them to take the bold step of pausing their support of any further development in the parish.
“Without proper investment to upgrade our sewage systems, we can’t properly protect the community or permit development of additional homes for local people. Our protected waterscape is being threatened and the chances of homes being flooded in the future are being increased.”
Isobel Stoddart, chairwoman of SENS said: “A Freedom of Information request by local citizens has shown that the current wastewater management system is not working. An ‘emergency’ discharge of untreated effluent has occurred 1,000 times in the last three-year period directly into the river Kent – that is an average of nearly once a day.”
Not just a local problem
SENS point out that this is not just a local problem, but similar situations are occurring with increasing regularity across the country. It cites that recent media articles have shown that Southern Water was recently fined £90m for discharging raw sewage into rivers and off the coast of South East England.
Local resident Fran Richardson said: “Storm Desmond in 2015 brought the River Kent into many of our homes and businesses. It was an exceptional event, which we expect to be far less exceptional in future with changing rainfall intensity as a consequence of global heating.
“The river Kent is considered one of the cleanest rivers in the country. This may be because it is also one of the quickest to rise and fall in heavy rain with a huge and steep catchment area.
“However, Staveley is under great pressure to provide more housing and this policy of ‘build, build, build’ on our greenfield sites adds yet more stress to an inadequate drainage system that is, in turn, causing more flooding and is simply not acceptable .”
On the agenda for years
A United Utilities spokeswoman said: “United Utilities has been liaising with residents of Staveley and the parish council for a number of years to discuss the sewer flooding that sometimes spills from a manhole during heavy rainfall.
“This is not helped by additional volumes of surface water entering our network through new connections and we have been carrying out work to try to reduce this amount. We understand how unpleasant sewer flooding is and we investigate every incident that’s reported, complete a clean-up and ensure it is recorded on our systems.
“Our investment programme tackles the most serious issues first. While we currently have no major investment planned at Staveley, the prioritisation of this programme is constantly under review so it is important that all flooding incidents are reported to us on every occasion.
“We are considering including Staveley in a pilot scheme trialling the use of sensors to manage sewer flows more proactively.
“Regarding the parish council’s concerns about discharges, United Utilities works within strict permit conditions and we do not discharge untreated effluent in dry weather.
“During bad weather, we are permitted by the Environment Agency to spill treated and untreated effluent as long as certain conditions are met.”
